International Motorcycle Show – Victory

If you’ve ever seen the show “Biker Build Off”, you might remember a particular show episode where Arlen Ness faces off with former 250GP champ Roland Sands. Both builders crafted gorgeous machines,but only one could win. Arlen Ness took home the trophy in that episode, but Roland emerged victorious a few episodes later when he faced off with builder Jesse Rooke. Fast forward a few years. Arlen Ness has been churning out custom bikes for Victory that are real head turners. His touches on bikes like the Vision and Jackpot give them a great look and a futuristic style.

The journey for Ness and Sands has now come full circle. At the unveil of the new Victory High-Ball on Friday, it was announced that Sands has created a custom version of the High-Ball. The “Ol’ VIc” is a great looking bike with subtle changes, including a suicide shifter, matte reddish-brown paint and a few custom fabricated pieces bolted on.

The High-Ball is described by Victory as “No Bells. No Whistles. No Apologies.” The High-Ball sports a nice, old school Bobber look. It has a matte Black finish with white inserts on the sides of the tank. Add to that blacked-out ape-hangers and it is a nice looking ride. One of the features you might not be able to see from these pictures is a ridge down the center of the tank and rear fender. It really looks nice on the bike and gives it a little something extra. Here’s the description from Victory’s web site:

Stripped down. Bare bones. A bold throwback. The all-new Victory High-Ball rumbles down the road in the spirit of the classic bobber with an outright refusal to sacrifice performance along the way. Built piece by piece around the road-pounding 106 Freedom

V-Twin, it’s a ride with all the power and agility you’d expect from a Victory. If you’re a pure rider with a passion for old-school styling, this is the bike you fire up for the first time and never look back. Available in April, see dealer for details.

I was pretty impressed with Victory’s offering at the show. One of the main points they were trying to make with this bike is that they want you to customize it to be yours. They made it simple, and with bolt-ons and your own fabrication, you can build it to be the bike you really want it to be. Here are a few more pictures I took that day: